Let me tell you a story.

Editorial Aid: My List of Overused and Abused Words

Why I need my list: One thing I have been told repeatedly is to edit the hell out of everything before trying to get it published. This stands to reason, as a manuscript full of typos and incorrect word usage is a turn-off for agents, editors, and publishers. Great, but no one has ever told me how to edit the hell out of something. I figured that grammar and spell checks factored in, but beyond that, I wasn’t sure, and those checks don’t catch everything. Thus, I developed a system for myself, and this list of words is a big part of that.

How I started my list: After I sent my mother the first novel I ever wrote, she called me and said, “I am sick and tired of Mr. Chuckles.” I had used that word over 50 times in 300 pages. No one chuckles that much. Because of that, I did some searching <ctrl+f> and came up with a list of words that I abuse. I always search these when editing. For the overused words, I don’t remove all of them, just enough to spread it out so you don’t notice it. (The book I am currently reading has “diffidently” 20 times in 400 pages. That is too much for an adverb!) The others are words that are abused – used incorrectly or typed in error.

My List:

cliches and colloquialisms (grammar check catches most of these, for American English)

then/than

farther/further

hear/here

your/you’re (a mortifying mistake for an author, but it happens)

there/their/they’re (another mortifying mistake)

form/from

fro/for

words that end with -wards should be -ward (toward not towards)

piece of [my, his, her] mind/peace of mind

you outside of a quotation

had/passive voice (you can’t get rid of them all; you can’t and shouldn’t, but you should try to keep your writing active!)